Bolton Wanderers Tommy Banks's life and career remembered

As the legend went, the tough-as-teak full-back would call over to his great friend, Roy Hartle, and shout in his thick Farnworth brogue: “Roy, when thee’s done with yon mon, wilt chip him o’er ere and I’ll see if ee leeks gravel rash!”

Such was his fearsome reputation, some of the game’s most famous names would 'develop' injuries before travelling to Bolton and leave team-mates to take the tumble.

Those tall tales have been passed down generations of Bolton Wanderers fans but those lucky enough to have seen Banks – and Hartle – in their prime would also have vouched for their quality as footballers.

“Tommy has always been well-respected and very popular with players… friend or foe,” said Manchester United and England legend Sir Bobby Charlton in Banks’s biography ‘I’m Tellin’ Thee’ which was published in August 2012.

“He had a lot to say on and off the field but knew football and was a master of his craft. Fast over the ground and hard as nails, wingers didn’t like playing against him. If you had any spot in your make up he’d exploit it, few if any got the better of him.”

Thomas Banks was born at number 14, Tudor Avenue, in New Bury, to parents John (known as Jack) and Catherine, and was the youngest of seven, four boys and three girls.

The St James Primary School football team of 1938/39 with Tommy Banks in the front row (centre) (Image: NQNW)

His primary school years were spent at St James’s, where he was part of a successful football side, and though he was offered a chance to attend Farnworth Grammar, his family could not afford to send him and so he settled on Harper Green Secondary School.

Banks continued to excel at football and soon began playing on a Saturday afternoon for Partridges in the Bolton Boys Club League alongside a number of part-time jobs, including stable-work, egg collecting and delivering the Bolton Evening News.

When his father died in 1945, Banks began working at Moseley Common Pit and was the only child still living at home, but his dream was to be a footballer and after being spotted by Bolton Wanderers he signed amateur forms the same year.

After playing for the Under-18s town team at the age of 15 he was then selected for the Great Britain Boys Club, playing at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, and then captaining the England Boys Clubs against Wales and Ireland. He came to the attention of Leeds United, who offered him amateur forms, only for Banks to say he was heading home to Bolton to continue working down the pit.

Heading towards his 17th birthday when he could sign professional forms with Wanderers, another club came calling. A representative of Manchester United – which may, or may not have been Sir Matt Busby - called at the house to speak with his mother.

Arsenal, Portsmouth, Wolves and Burnley had also made their interest known but a conversation with Bolton’s head coach, George Taylor, convinced him that Burnden Park is where he wanted to be and in late 1946 he was offered his first contract by the club as a part-time professional, and would still be up with the lark to work at down the mines.

Progress through to the first team was slow, and Banks would be a paying spectator at the opposite end of the Embankment on the fateful day, March 9, 1946, when Stanley Matthews’ Stoke City came to Burnden to play in the FA Cup. He, like so many others, returned home to grateful arms not realising the tragedy that had unfolded, and that 33 people had lost their lives after barriers had collapsed in a huge crowd surge.

Banks made his first team debut against Wolves in May 1948 but with his brother Ralph occupying one of the full-back berths, he played primarily in the reserves.

His progression was also interrupted by a spell of National Service, which began in January 1951 and consisted mainly of work as a physical training instructor.

After two years of service he returned to Bolton to play in a handful of games, including one at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park, which would be the first time he would share a pitch with Hartle.

At the end of the season Banks watched his brother go up against the great Stanley Matthews in the FA Cup final, which famously went the way of Blackpool.

The following season his big breakthrough came, featuring 46 times in all competitions as Bolton finished fifth in the First Division.

Left: Tommy Banks with former Bolton player, Ian Seddon, who penned his biography. Top right: Wilf McGuinness and Tommy Banks shaking hands with Billy Wright centre. Bottom right: Bobby Charlton, Wilf McGuinness, Tommy Banks, Billy Wright all wearing Bolton Wanderers shirts. (Image: NQNW)

Now into his mid-20s, Banks became an important part of Bill Ridding’s side.

Speaking in his biography, team-mate Dennis Stevens said: “He has no airs and graces to this day, (he is) a totally genuine man who was forever lifting spirits in the dressing room. Tommy was always laughing and never appeared to get upset, nothing bother him unduly. His personality gelled the lads together and he played a big part in generating a brilliant team spirit.”

Banks’s crowning glory would come in 1958. He would help Bolton lift the FA Cup with victory against Manchester United at Wembley but also win six caps for England, all condensed within a four-month spell between May and October.

Bolton Wanderers 1958/59 (Image: PA)

After making his debut against the Soviet Union in Moscow he travelled with the Three Lions to the World Cup in Sweden, playing in all three group games and the unsuccessful play-off – also against the Soviets – in Gothenburg.

In the same year Banks became the first footballer to lend his face to an advertising campaign.

PFA chief Jimmy Hill had been asked for a suitable representative with distinctive looks who could help sell Gillette Blue Razors on TV.

Banks was paid nearly £400 for the job, which involved an overnight stay at the Waldorf Hotel in London.

“I bet David Beckham and Thierry Henry got a bit more when they did Gillette ads,” he quipped back in 2012.

Bolton finished fourth in the First Division in 1959, Banks making 43 appearances in league and cup, after which he played in two more seasons, his last league game coming in February 1961. In all he played 255 times, scoring twice.

After brief spell playing for Altrincham and Bangor he then retired to move into the building trade and move back home to Farnworth, where he also ran a newsagents.

But Banks also left a lasting impression on modern day football as a prominent member of the PFA fighting hard to abolish the maximum wage at the turn of the decade.

During a historic union meeting at Belle Vue, Stanley Matthews had argued that players were being treated “like serfs” but an onlooker responded by saying they should not earn more than the £12 his father received for working down the pit.

Quick as a flash, Banks said: "Tell your dad that if he can mark brother Matthews successfully from 3pm until 20 to five, then I'll do his shift for him."

From there, division within the players union faded and strike action was agreed – an act which eventually forced clubs to completely restructure players’ pay.

Sir Bobby Charlton recalled: “It was Tommy’s speech as much as anything that lifted the tension and uncertainty. Lads bought into the claims of the committee.”

Though Banks retired into public life, his value to the club and the town increased.

He was one of the special guests at the final game at Burnden in 1997, as Wanderers won the title against Charlton Athletic, and was a regular visitor at the Reebok thereafter.

Tommy Banks (fourth from right) with his former team-mates before the final game at Burnden Park (Image: NQNW)

Left: Tommy and Rita Banks. Right: Banks in his playing days at Bolton Wanderers. (Image: NQNW)

In later life he helped with the Community Trust’s Sporting Network sessions, bringing older fans together and helping those with cognitive impairment or the early stages of dementia by bringing mementoes of his playing days and telling stories.

Eventually, Banks’s beloved second wife, Rita, would confirm that he too had been diagnosed with the illness – but that did not stop them raising thousands of pounds for the Alzheimer’s Society with a series of events.

Though his footballing legacy will forever be one of a defensive hard-man and one of the most uncompromising full-backs of the fifties, his legend in Farnworth, or Bolton, will be that of a gentleman who provided wonderful memories and the most fabulous stories.